photos courtesy: ELLIOTT GALLERY
Artist Nissan Engel WORLD-RENOWNED PRINTMAKER, painter, sculptor and collage artist Nissan Engel will make his first visit to New Orleans to appear at his one-man exhibit on April 16 at Elliott Gallery, his first show in 18 years. Featuring Engel’s newest original works, the unique pieces incorporate New Orleans jazz and classical French opera sheet music as well as antique architectural renderings of local buildings. In a telephone interview from Venice, Italy, Engel said, “I am very excited. I have been working on the theme of jazz in Marciac, France. The more I work, the more I love jazz, so I cannot wait to see New Orleans.” Musical themes are often the artist’s subject, giving his work its remarkable sense of harmony and rhythm; Engel refers to his art as, ‘Abstract Lyricism.’ He says, “I have always been interested in music … in opera, in jazz. I had a dear friend, who died recently at the age of 94. He taught great opera singers; Pavarotti was a student. Many years ago, my friend gave me some music by Mozart. I used it in a piece of artwork, and that was my first collage. Music became a permanent interest of mine.” Translating the lyricism of music and color into the visual arts, Engel holds his compositions together by their likeness to the tonal and harmonic qualities of music. Speaking his own visual language, he “paints” music with an optical power to challenge our emotions. Gallery owner Catherine Martens Betz explains:
“Nissan’s visual compositions by Kate Brevard are bold yet soft, with hints to architecture and fabric design from his study of costume and stage design. It’s very hard to make collage look seamless. People are quick to write ‘mixed media’ off. Nissan has this wonderful eye for doing collage while making it look so easy.” Born in Haifa, Israel, in 1931, Engel is an artist’s artist, having progressed through all of the classical phases of study and apprenticeship before arriving at his own unique style of collage. He graduated from the Beaux-Arts Bezalel in Jerusalem in 1956, where he studied painting, printmaking, and design; in 1957, he studied stage and costume design at Centre Dramatique de l’Est, in Strasbourg, France. In 1965, Engel moved to New York City. While in the United States, he worked with a series of stained glass windows for synagogues in New York and Maryland, his dramatic sense of light, color and emotion transferring easily to the art of stained glass. This form of working in blocks of color led Engel away from his figurative works and towards more abstract collage forms. Realizing the power of colored forms coupled with the play of transparency in the windows, he found a new technique for his mixed-media paintings. Engel explains the evolution of his creative Opposite page: work over the years: “I have had two phases in Carmen II. my career. When I was in Paris, it was figurative. Above: Artist Then, I was in New York City with Warhol and >> Nissan Engel April-May 2016 83